老澳门开奖结果

Today is an historic day, no doubt. President Obama signed into law a bill repealing the discriminatory 鈥渄on鈥檛 ask, don鈥檛 tell鈥� policy. Now that that has been checked off the list, we need to remind his administration that there are lots of other things to address, including ensuring that hospitals provide emergency abortion care to pregnant women.

This issue came to the nation鈥檚 attention when a hospital in Phoenix, St. Joseph鈥檚 Hospital and Medical Center, provided a life-saving abortion to a young mother of four children who was dying from pulmonary hypertension and was 11 weeks pregnant. (We鈥檝e previously blogged on this issue here and here.) Last week, the Bishop in Phoenix threatened to strip St. Joseph鈥檚 of its status as an official Catholic hospital unless St. Joseph鈥檚 agreed to sign a written pledge that it would not perform another life-saving abortion. The diocese made good on that threat yesterday, and stripped St. Joseph鈥檚 of its endorsement after the hospital defended its actions. As , St. Joseph鈥檚 refused to agree to allow their patients to die. The hospital said, 鈥淢orally, ethically, and legally we simply cannot stand by and let someone die whose life we might be able to save.鈥�

St. Joseph鈥檚 did the right thing by standing up for women鈥檚 health. But the Phoenix bishop鈥檚 actions send a chilling message to other Catholic hospitals in the country: if they save women鈥檚 lives by providing emergency abortion care, there will be consequences. This could have a profound impact on women's health care throughout the country, especially given that the that even life-saving abortions cannot be performed in Catholic hospitals across the country.

We know what happened at St. Joseph鈥檚 is not an isolated incident. Indeed, there are where doctors have felt their hands were tied by religious doctrine, and, as a result, could not provide appropriate health-saving abortion care. We all know that a pregnant woman can develop life-threatening conditions with no notice. A patient鈥檚 health should be a hospital鈥檚 first priority. It鈥檚 time for the Obama administration to make certain that no woman should be afraid that if she walks into a hospital she will be denied emergency abortion care simply because of the hospital's affiliation.

Today, the 老澳门开奖结果 sent a letter to the Obama administration asking them where things stand on this issue. This follows a letter we sent back in July 2010, to which we have yet to receive a meaningful response. Many of you have also asked them to look into the issue too, and .

Let鈥檚 hope the administration checks standing up for women's health off its to-do list soon.

(Cross-posted to and .)